A glitch that should never have been

Some people have called those who have long decried our nation's move toward voting machines nuts or just sore losers, but here we are in Humboldt County with our own example of what can happen when there's a glitch in the system.

They were loud, and they were strident in proclaiming that they didn't trust election technologies as much as they trust the ability of actual human beings to count votes.

The recent discovery, thanks to the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project, of a discrepancy in election results due to flawed software reveals that these activists were right to make noise, and right to complain about a company that has been less than responsible in dealing with the problem.

Humboldt County recently certified inaccurate election results due to a glitch in the software from Premier Elections Solutions.

There is a work-around to make sure this doesn't happen, but somehow that information was not passed on when former Elections Officer Lindsey McWilliams left his Humboldt County post for a better-paying gig down south.

In an interview with the Times-Standard, McWilliams said that somehow, in the two and a half weeks of his transition out, that was a detail that got omitted.

This is a flimsy excuse for several reasons.

First, a work-around to make sure ballots and votes get accurately counted should be at the absolute top of anyone's list of important information.

Secondly, this supposed work-around came from Premier in the form of a memorandum.

As McWilliams' boss, it seems absolutely ridiculous that Humboldt County Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich was not forwarded a copy of this memo, or that the county's instructions for operating the machines were not updated to include the information.

Thankfully, we have the transparency project, and because we have citizens who pay close attention, we were able to find out about this glitch and can now rectify the results.

Crnich deserves much commendation for developing the Transparency Project, as do all the community members who have long been working on making it a reality. Your work has paid off.